We got an electric dispenser that lets our cat Tabooger gorge as much as he wants. It keeps giving a slow trickle of food out through the day (instead of 2 or 3 big meals, they get 6 small ones) and we only have to interact with it when the power goes out or it needs another bag of food in the hopper.
The reliability of food showing up, even when we were gone, that may have been a big contributer to our orange getting over his eating disorder.
I've actually heard that using a timer released feeder is best so that your cat associates you with cuddles and the machine that has no emotion with food.
There's definitely a lot of variables in that decision, so it's not a "one size fits all" recommendation. A timed release feeder can be helpful if your cat is constantly pestering you for food, but having your cat associate you with food can also be beneficial to your relationship and can be a tool to address some behavioral challenges. If your cat is only pestering you near meal times, adjusting your routines might also work. For example, if your cats are harassing you to wake up in the morning to feed them, then adjusting your routine so that feeding them is no longer the first thing you do will likely help to reduce or eliminate the unwanted behavior since they won't associate you getting up with them getting food.
Another potential issue is that wet food doesn't really work with most timed release feeders, and I don't think there's any microchip-based timed feeders that are compatible with wet food. Wet food is much better for cats than kibble, so even if you use a timed feeder for kibble, they should also still get wet food regularly too.
What if you have one fat cat and one skinny cat? ....oh wait, the fat one rules us all... must go give her a treat in penance for forgetting that for a moment.